Everything appeared to go as planned last Thursday at the opening of the [b]20th Anniversary Philadelphia Film Festival[/b]. The spacious Zellerbach (Annenberg) theater felt full and the mood was light as we were welcomed by PFS Executive Director Andrew Greenblatt, Artistic Director Michael Lerman and Mayor Michael Nutter.

Director Steve McQueen(Hunger), (why doesn’t he go by S. McQueen or use his middle name, Rodney or Stephen?) has created an intense character study of a sex addict without really having to go overboard on graphic content. There are a lot of very visual sex scenes, but it’s not gratuitous. With that being said, it was still embarrassing to watch the film with so many senior citizens.

If I owned an incredibly elegant, picturesque, stately castle with an 18 hole golf course and stable full of horses, I too would be sad and scared to see the end of the world, because you gotta figure life on the other side might not be as good.

Here at the Philadelphia Film Society (PFS), we love going to the movies, and we especially love going out for dinner, drinks, and a movie. Really making a night of it, you know? Say what you will about the ease of watching movies on insta-TV-laptop-demand, we still believe that there’s something special and wonderful about escaping into another world via a well-made film on the silver screen.

Last night at the Ritz East Theater, the 20th Anniversary Philadelphia Film Festival was honored to host the US premiere of Goon. If you consider yourself a fan of hockey even in the slightest, you MUST see this movie.

Directed by Michael Dowse (Take Me Home Tonight), the film centers on lovable loser Doug Glatt (played by Seann William Scott) who, much to his chagrin, seems to only be good at one thing in life: beating the living crap out of people.

The people of Philadelphia are no strangers to boxing. It is more than just a sport out here; it is a way of life. Naturally everyone knows the story of Rocky and his underdog tale of courage and perseverance. The City finds it inspiring as well as the reason behind the many tourist who appear daily on the steps to the Art Museum. They need to prove to themselves, as Rocky did many years ago, that they too can go the distance. It is a beautiful story but it hits much closer to home than many people realize.

Having never seen an Audrey Hepburn film before, the only image of her I have in my head is, of course, the sleek black dress, the ornate pearl necklace, and the dark sunglasses from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I’ve always associated this photo with Hepburn’s status as a style icon, as opposed to the film it spawned from. Finally seeing the movie that helped make her a legend was actually an interesting and surprisingly enjoyable experience.

Snap a fabulous picture of yourself in front of our “Red Carpet” bus stop, located at 19th and Chestnut in Center City Philadelphia, and enter to win TWO tickets to our Closing Night Screening PLUS Closing Night Party at Sigma Sound Stage ($125 value!)